A Fishing Rod made by Captain Lana. Cast a line over piles of underwater rocks to fish for wild aquatic Pokémon.

Catching Pokémon

Generation I and Generation II

In Generation I and II, fishing is simply a matter of standing next to water and using the rod. Sometimes, it will hook a Pokémon and start a battle. Other times, it will catch nothing. There is a random chance of either happening, so if the rod catches nothing, players can cast it out again. The player can only fish from land, not while surfing.

Generation III

Starting with Generation III, the fishing mechanic became more complicated, as the player would have to pay attention and confirm as soon as the rod hooked a Pokémon, or else it would get away. A series of ellipses appear prior to the text "Oh! A bite!", which is when the player should press the A Button. In Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, this required a series of confirmations to reel in better Pokémon. Generation III also introduced the ability for Pokémon Trainers to fish off the back of a surfing Pokémon, which may be required to catch Feebas. This also made fishing on Route 4 possible. Starting from Emerald, if the first Pokémon in the player's party has the ability Suction Cups or Sticky Hold, the player is more likely to get a bite.

Generation IV

In Generation IV, when the player uses the rod, an exclamation mark-like sign pops up above the player, noting that they should push the A button to start the battle with the Pokémon they've encountered. As with Generation III, the Pokémon will go away if the player takes too long.

Generation V

Super Rod's Key Item obtain sprite from Generation V

In Generation V, fishing mechanics are mostly unchanged from Generation IV. However, by fishing in rippling water, different Pokémon can be caught, generally being rare Pokémon or the evolved forms of the Pokémon normally found. As such, this allows certain Pokémon such as Milotic and Poliwrath to be caught in the wild, while normally they would not. Furthermore, the Old and Good Rods are no longer available, only providing the player with a single rod to fish for Pokémon with.

Generation VI

In Generation VI, fishing mechanics remain mostly unchanged, with the removal of rippling water and the addition of consecutive fishing. The Old and Good Rods return in this Generation.

Consecutive fishing describes reeling in the same Pokémon in the same area repeatedly. Hooking multiple Pokémon in a row increases the chances of hooking a Shiny Pokémon, reaching a maximum chance of approximately 1% for a streak of 20 or more Pokémon. The game increases the chances of finding a Shiny Pokémon by generating extra personality values in an attempt to find one that results in a Shiny Pokémon, with the number of attempts depending on the size of the current streak. For every Pokémon added to the streak up to 20 Pokémon, the game will make two extra attempts to find a Shiny personality value; i.e., the number of attempts at any given point in the streak is 1 + 2 * streak_size, and caps at a maximum of 41 attempts when the streak is at least 20 Pokémon long. This effect stacks with the Shiny Charm's effect.[1]

The player is allowed to defeat, catch or simply run away from any encounters found this way without the chain breaking. The only ways to break the chain are by not reeling in any Pokémon, reeling in a different Pokémon or by exiting the area. It is possible to check the longest chain done by the player with a fishermen in Route 16.

Fishing near rocks and other impassable spaces (not including spaces occupied by Trainers) will raise the chances of hooking Pokémon. The more sides (north, south, east, or west) around the space where the bobber lands that are blocked by such obstacles, the higher the chances of hooking a Pokémon are. A space of land may also count as an obstacle on one side of the bobber, so long as it is not the only one. If three sides are blocked, every cast will hook a Pokémon.

Generation VII

Fishing Rod's Key Item obtain sprite from Generation VII

In Generation VII, the player can no longer fish in any body of water. Instead, in certain areas, there are piles of rocks at the bottom of the water where the player can fish to find Pokémon. Sometimes when the player reels in their line, they may find an item instead of a Pokémon. In each area with fishing spots, at least one of the rock piles will have bubbles rising from it to the surface, and if the player fishes at that spot, they will be able to more commonly find Pokémon that would be rare at the other spots. As soon as the player reels in their line after they find any Pokémon or item from such spots, the bubbles will disappear until the player re-enters the area. The bubbles will also disappear if the player moves too quickly near the spot, if they move over it, or if they reel in their rod too quickly. Once the bubbles disappear, the encounter rate returns to that of other fishing spots.

The different types of fishing rods are also all replaced by a single "Fishing Rod" in Generation VII. This Fishing Rod cannot be used from the Bag, but instead, when the player approaches a fishing spot, the game prompts the player with the option to press the A button to use the Fishing Rod. Some fishing spots may be accessible from land, while others may only be accessible from water. If the player wishes to fish at a spot in the middle of water, they can only do so using the Poké RideLapras Paddle.

In spin-off games

PokéPark: Fishing Rally DS

PokéPark: Fishing Rally DS is a game focused on fishing for Pokémon. Points are earned for the size, rarity, and species of the caught Pokémon. Up to five Pokémon can be stored at once, and high scores could be seen at Pokémon Centers, while the game was still available for download.

Pokémon: Magikarp Jump

Pokémon: Magikarp Jump is a game where player fishes and trains generations of Magikarp to jump as high as they can and win Magikarp jumping leagues. Magikarp are fished with Old Rod, with the player being given increasingly better variants of Old Rod (So-So, Good, Great, Rare, Pro's, and Supreme) as they progress that can fish new Magikarp patterns.

In Whiscash and Ash, a fisherman named Sullivan believed that the secret to catching the Whiscash he was looking for, was finding the right lure. In On Olden Pond, Ash and his friends visited a lake, which had used to be a popular fishing resort. Ash, Brock, and May tried fishing from the lake, with Ash eventually hooking up a Crawdaunt. Ash attempted to battle the Crawdaunt with his Corphish, but the Ruffian Pokémon was soon defeated by its evolved form, which then proceeded to destroy the group's loaned fishing rods. It was later revealed that the Crawdaunt belonged to a man named Mr. Saridakis, who had once tried to purchase the lake in order to build an amusement park over it, but Tiffany, the owner of the lake, had refused to sell it. As a result, he had unleashed his Crawdaunt to the lake to scare off the people who came to fish there. After being saved from drowning by a Dragonair living in the lake, Mr. Saridakis decided to cancel his plans. Misty has a collection of lures, including a special lure based on herself that she believes is the best. She sent it to Ash as a gift in The Unbeatable Lightness of Seeing. Ash used this lure in Buizel Your Way Out of This to try to catch a powerful Buizel.

In SS037, Clemont and Bonnie participated in a fishing competition held in Lumiose City. Clemont intended to use his high-tech fishing rod to win, but Cilan, also taking part in the competition, commented him on his way of approach to fishing. With Cilan's advice, Bonnie managed to reel in a Clawitzer, which, due to it then proceeding to attack them, was driven away by Cilan's Stunfisk, by which time the competition already ended. Later in the episode, Clemont and Cilan combined Clemont's rod and Cilan's fishing skills to save Bonnie from a runaway subway cart.

In Yo, Ho, Ho! Go, Popplio!, Professor Kukui took the Pokémon School class on a fishing lesson, which he gave Lana to lead. Lana, being the most skilled fisher of the group, managed to fish up many different Water Pokémon, while Ash and Kiawe were having trouble finding anything at all, and Sophocles was too busy programming his high-tech rod to even try. Lillie, however, managed to surprise everyone by hooking up a Milotic, but her line snapped before she could reel the Tender Pokémon in, causing it go get away.

Fishing was a central plot element in Big Sky, Small Fry!, where both Ash and Lana as well as Team Rocket tried to fish up the Totem Pokémon of Brooklet Hill. While Team Rocket was taken away by Bewear in the middle of their fishing, Lana managed to hook up the Totem Pokémon, a School FormWishiwashi, almost immediately, and proceeded to battle it. She was eventually able to defeat the Totem Pokémon, receiving a Waterium Z as a reward.

In Pokémon Origins

Red obtained an Old Rod from the Vermilion Fishing Guru in File 2: Cubone, and a Super Rod from the Silence Bridge Fishing Guru in File 3: Giovanni. Soon after obtaining the latter, he was seen using it to capture himself a Psyduck.

The Super Rod is the only fishing rod that is obtainable in Generation V. The Old and Good Rods, while still existent in the game's programming, cannot be obtained without hacking and cannot be used; if hacked in, they can be held by a Pokémon unlike legitimate Key Items.